'I'll do everything I can to treat you; you do everything you can to hold on'

Hadas Ehrlich joined MDA following in the footsteps of her father, a paramedic, and the two of them even made a joint speech at an event marking the first-ever Paramedics Day in Israel. In her role, she had dealt with the fallout of many terrorist attacks and had provided life-saving treatment to the wounded on a number of occasions. Being based in the Jerusalem District meant she was used to working under pressure, making the sudden switch from routine to emergency mode, and saving lives when the threat was still present on the scene. But none of this prepared her for the events of October 7 and the chaos that that day brought about.

That Saturday, Hadas was on a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) shift in Jerusalem and was soon to finish when, at 6:30 AM, the sirens sounded – first in the South but soon afterward in Jerusalem too. This was an unusual occurrence in this area. Hadas received a phone call from the MDA dispatch center asking her to go down South with her MICU driver and EMT Eliel to help with the life-saving efforts. She boarded the MICU, an armored vehicle, and made her way to the scene of the disaster. 

Hadas arrived in the South under heavy missile fire and, even before reaching the MDA station, was sent to treat injured casualties. Vehicles carrying severely wounded people came to meet and transfer the patients to her on the roadside and then went on to collect more casualties. Within moments, Hadas found herself alone, treating two people who were in severe condition in the back of the MICU vehicle while urging the driver to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. They fought against the clock, and Hadas did everything she could to treat both patients concurrently. MDA paramedics like the ones who trained Hadas pride themselves on having this rare and important skill. 

What did the young medic do?

She applied tourniquets and bandages and gave the patients the necessary medication, monitored their breathing and heart rate, calmed the patients, and sedated them while the MICU sped towards the hospital with incoming rocket sirens blasting in the background.

At one point, the team drove directly into the terrorist snipers’ line of fire. The MICU driver, Eliel, told of how a terrorist stood so close to him that he could look him in the eye. He pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor and sped away, praying they wouldn’t be shot. Hadas, in the rear part of the vehicle, was treating the patients and wasn’t aware of the drama that had unfolded just meters away from her.

“One of the patients, who was in very bad condition, was a combat soldier – one of the first to encounter the terrorists in the Sderot police station. He was bleeding heavily and didn’t think he was going to make it. With tears in his eyes, he asked me to pray with him and to tell his family that he loved them. I refused to give up on him, and I refused to let him give up. I held his hand and said to him, ‘Let’s make a deal: I’ll do everything I can to treat you, and you do everything you can to stay awake and hold on.’ And that’s what happened. A few weeks later, I heard that he’d survived and was in rehabilitation. I was so happy because, during those moments in the MICU, I feared he wouldn’t make it, but I had to give him the strength to make him believe that everything would be okay. If he had given up hope, he wouldn’t have survived.”

Hadas made numerous high-stakes medical decisions that day, including deciding which of the casualties should be evacuated by air ambulance and which should be transferred to the hospital in the MICU, with the risk of encountering a terrorist ambush. She saw some extremely difficult sights and heard many explosions, but at no point did she allow her fear to affect her. Her professionalism in the work she carried out that day was inspiring.